Portland city officials have pushed back against President Trump’s efforts to address the city’s crime crisis, but not everyone is opposed to the much-needed help.
In September, President Trump announced, “At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
“I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary.”
Portland leaders, however, are pushing back.
The Gateway Pundit reported that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delivered a blistering ultimatum to Portland’s Democrat Mayor, demanding immediate action to rein in the violent Antifa mobs besieging the city’s ICE facility, or face a surge of federal agents.
Noem told Fox News’ Jesse Watters that federal CBP and ICE officers have been doing the heavy lifting to remove violent offenders and keep the facility safe — while city leaders have been “playing politics.”
Camilla Wamsley, director of Portland’s ICE office, previously told Fox News that the agency’s facility “has been confronted with violence for over 100 straight nights” and that police in Portland have been directed not to help.
But not everyone is opposed to making Portland safe again.
Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, president of the Portland Police Association, spoke with Fox News Digital and expressed a desire to collaborate with federal agents to address the city’s persistent crime issues.
Fox News reports:
“Let’s present what resources we have to bring to bear to accomplish that task,” Schmautz told Fox News Digital. “And if it’s not sufficient, then we need help. And so, you know, again, I don’t want to be drawn into a hard yes or no. What I want is for us all to identify the problem and work together as a whole of government to solve the problem.”
Schmautz said that the Portland Police Bureau is “horrifically understaffed,” at a time when some local leaders, he said, aren’t supporting police.
“There is a lot, I mean, of just open, very, very anti-police rhetoric in our city council meetings,” he said.
“We are still working our way out of a significant, you know, burst, or an expansion in our crime profile. I mean, we have, you know, our homicides went up, times five from 2020 to 2023, and we’re kind of slowly receding, although we’ve had nine last month,” he said.
The union president expressed sympathy for the fear felt by federal law enforcement after constant attacks.
“I am extraordinarily sympathetic to how concerned and afraid federal officers – I mean, there was a shooting in Dallas at an ICE facility. There are federal officers being hit by cars. And, you know, in a world where we have different perspectives about politics, it’s one thing to have policy discussions and everything else. But no one should be OK with violence directed at anyone,” Schmautz said.
Portland is so overrun with violent leftists that last week, conservative journalist Nick Sortor was jumped and attacked simply for reporting on the violence.
Katie Daviscourt, a staff reporter for The Post Millennial, was bashed in the face by a female masked Antifa militant with a flag pole and left with a black eye. Police refused to arrest the assailant after she fled into a nearby “safehouse” for the extremist activists.
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